Cabinet Ministers

The Indonesian military has agreed to retire generals who hold Cabinet posts, including controversial Gen. Wiranto, a senior military official said. The agreement comes amid criticism of the armed forces and efforts to reduce its influence. A senior military source earlier said President Abdurrahman Wahid had signed a decree retiring Wiranto from the military, a move that could cut off his power base.

CAIRO - Facing an ultimatum from the army to end months of unrest, President Mohamed Morsi demanded that Egypt's military remain on the sidelines and declared he would defend the country's new constitution, even if it cost him his life. Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood movement have been maneuvering to stay in power, squeezed by an army deadline to form a coalition government by Wednesday or see the military impose a solution. The president responded in a rambling, defiant address that stretched into early Wednesday.

CANADA * Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, whose government is mired in increasingly serious allegations of sleaze and corruption, abruptly removed two ministers. Defense Minister Art Eggleton lost his job after a newspaper revealed that an ex-girlfriend had been given a military contract for which there had been no open tender. He said there was nothing to the story but was forced to quit.

May 15, 2011 | By Borzou Daragahi and Ramin Mostaghim, Los Angeles Times

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad escalated an unusually public confrontation within the country's leadership Saturday by firing three Cabinet ministers, defying Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and his loyalists, who had warned him the move would be unconstitutional. Ahmadinejad accepted the resignation of the ministers of oil, welfare, and mines and industries as part of a plan to reshape the government by eventually merging eight of the country's ministries into four, according to the semi-official Fars News Agency and letters posted to his own website.

Prime Minister Sosuke Uno, who has had his own campaign problems with women, today scolded two Cabinet ministers for harming public trust in politics after one called women "useless" in politics and the other kindled fears of higher taxes. Chief Cabinet Secretary Masajuro Shiokawa told reporters that Uno admonished Hisao Horinouchi, minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, and Shigenobu Sakano, the home affairs minister.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon decided Thursday to fire two hard-line government ministers, officials said, a move that would give him a slim Cabinet majority for his plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Sharon summoned the two ministers of the far-right National Union Party, Avigdor Lieberman and Benny Elon, for a meeting today to deliver the dismissal notices.

President Corazon Aquino, moving to make her government "an effective instrument of progress" after sacking Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile, today fired two more Cabinet ministers. "I am compelled by the national interest to make some changes in my government with a view to hammering it into an effective instrument of progress," Aquino said in a televised address.

Reinforcing statesmanship with salesmanship, the British government on Thursday addressed a stark, simple appeal to the divided and trouble-weary people of Northern Ireland: Give peace a chance. Cabinet ministers and government officials ricocheted in articulate procession from radio and television interviews to press briefings to parliamentary debate to lobby for a historic proposal aimed at sidetracking sectarian hatreds in the bloodied province.

The government remains committed to segregated neighborhoods and segregated public schools despite President Frederik W. de Klerk's announcement of major political reforms, two Cabinet ministers said today. "Black people should be running their own education and white people should be running their own education," said Stoffel van der Merwe, the white official who oversees education for blacks. Otherwise, he said, there will be "tremendous chaos."

Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos, preparing for his reelection battle against Corazon Aquino, ordered his Cabinet ministers back to their districts to campaign "as if we were running scared." A presidential palace announcement said Marcos, facing the strongest electoral challenge of his 20-year rule, met with Cabinet ministers and leaders of his party after talks with officials of metropolitan Manila.

Images of a former Cabinet minister and a steel magnate walking into prison have sent a shiver of disgust across much of Egypt as prosecutors widen investigations of the corrupt inner circle of former President Hosni Mubarak. Rich and once untouchable men connected to the seat of power have tumbled into disgraced suspects captured on YouTube stepping out of a police truck and into jail. It's another sign of the startling change of fortunes that has enveloped this nation since protests forced Mubarak to step down a week ago. Former Tourism Minister Zuheir Garana and steel tycoon Ahmed Ezz, a close friend of Mubarak's son Gamal, were arrested late Thursday and will be held for 15 days of investigation of corruption and other charges.

When Mexico and the United States were entering a landmark free trade agreement 16 years ago, one thing was clear: Mexican farmers would initially find it difficult to compete with heavily subsidized U.S. agricultural products. The solution: Mexico created a special fund to dole out cash to the poorest and smallest farmers. Somewhere along the way, something went wrong. Today, the fund -- far from helping the neediest -- is providing large financial subsidies to the families of notorious drug traffickers and several senior government officials, including the agriculture minister.

In a stunning attack on Somalia's shaky government, a suicide bombing Thursday at a graduation ceremony in Mogadishu killed three Cabinet ministers and least 12 others, government officials said. The bomber sneaked in amid hundreds of guests and graduating medical students at the Shamo Hotel in the south of the capital. Government forces control only a sliver of Mogadishu, and the attack was another indication of the reach of Islamist militants and Al Qaeda operatives. The carnage was a devastating blow to a transitional government, backed by U.S. arms shipments and African Union troops, that is fighting a civil war against an Islamic insurgency.

Although the White House thoroughly examined the Afghan government before choosing the strategy that it will unveil tonight, the composition of that government -- and hence its character -- remains highly uncertain. We know the reelection of Hamid Karzai has left Afghanistan with five more years of a president who lacks leadership attributes essential for the job. Inclined toward conciliation and leniency, Karzai would make a fine president of a Kiwanis Club, but he presides over a country replete with recalcitrant tribal elders and crooked warlords that demands a leader with the toughness to strong-arm troublemakers and keep subordinates under control.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas reappointed his Western-backed prime minister Tuesday, a move that aims to shore up Abbas' stature in Washington but dims the chances of reuniting the Palestinian territories and rebuilding the Gaza Strip.

Official results announced on state television show that Kuwaiti women have won parliamentary elections for the first time, garnering four seats. The victory, in the second parliamentary election in a year, is resounding in this conservative Persian Gulf country where parliaments have been men-only for almost five decades. Women were granted political rights in 2005. They failed to make any gains in two previous elections. The election was called after years of battles between the country's lawmakers and Cabinet ministers

There have been 10 Presidents during my lifetime, nine of whom I remember. All of them have had books written about them by their friends, cabinet ministers and advisers. None have been so vilified, debased, ridiculed and abused by their biographers as President and Mrs. Reagan. On the other hand, none of the Presidents before Reagan that I remember, chose such a batch of grubbing, disloyal, avaricious, lawless and indictable friends, cabinet ministers and advisers to help run the country.

President Raul Castro on Monday abruptly removed some of Cuba's most high-profile officials from top posts in what he said was an effort to streamline his administration. The sweeping overhaul also seemed designed, at least in part, to allow Castro to put his stamp on the country's leadership by promoting officials close to him and sidelining those associated with his brother, Fidel. Castro formally replaced his ailing sibling as president a year ago.

It was Day One for Zimbabwe's new government of national unity Friday, and already the paralysis had set in: The swearing-in ceremony that was supposed to usher in a new era of hope was delayed for hours by bitter squabbling. And in a sign that hard-liners in President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party remain bitterly opposed to the new prime minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, security forces arrested senior Tsvangirai ally Roy Bennett and charged him with treason.